Monstrous

A 1950s mom gets away with her son to a remote rented house, but something sinister keeps emerging from the pond out back.

Psychic trip, not a real horror, but done with great style in the cinematography and set dressing, and a gorgeous soundtrack of period tunes.

The lead performance is spot on, with a willingness to please barely concealing a wire-taut inner conflict. From the start it's clear we're in a subconscious world elaborately maintained in technicolor dresses and bob hairstyles, shadowed by subtle undertones in the score to generate a sense of the uncanny. The pace does drag a little, I think because the viewer has no relief in the constant look-out for clues to the mystery. Although the scenes are nice and crisp, the editing smooth, at no point did I lose myself in the events.

At the heart of the story is the return of repressed emotion, but perhaps the writer mistook her starting point: it's not the event in the pool, but the reaction to that event - in other words, why is the process so difficult for this particular woman? Perhaps the line about fault needed a rethink, with something more troubled lurking behind.

Overall: Domesticated uncanny.